There are many industries in which color selection of paint is relevant, including the architectural coatings, automotive OEM, and aerospace businesses, as well as many industrial businesses; industrial businesses that deal with consumer goods have a particular interest in color selection, such as appliances, metallic office furniture, motorcycles, and consumer electronics including cell phones, MP3 players, and the like.
The current process for the selection of a color for the purpose of painting an interior or exterior of a building entails the use of color stripe cards and/or color sample jars, the use of which requires the individual making the color selection to either travel to a location to retrieve these items or to order them and have them shipped to a specified location. This causes a significant delay in the overall process of purchasing and applying paint.
Various known systems currently enable a consumer to select a paint color based upon a color shown on a computer display. In addition, color confidence tools such as color visualization aid the consumer in the color selection process. These methods alone, however, are limited by the accuracy of the users computer display thereby causing some doubt regarding a color choice in the consumer's mind.
Improved methods and apparatus for selecting and/or matching color are desired.